theyarecomingforyou wrote on May 29, 2012, 18:47:Meanwhile PCs can easily handle 1080p and many - like myself - already game at 1600p or even 1080p*3. The only thing the new consoles will have going for them is multi-million dollar advertising budgets to snap up exclusive titles, influence reviewers and alter perceptions. The only plus is that next-gen ports will start off at an inherently higher standard.

It's possible, but if Valve's system specs are commonplace everywhere (and no reason to believe they're not) people running over 1080p resolutions only make up about 5% of the PC gamer market. I'm guessing that people with TV's that can handle anything like that are an even lower percentage, so it's more about hitting that point and then making sure that you have enough horsepower to run at a decent framerate once you get there.

The PC has always been better and had more options, it's just not as accessible for a lot of people. The only thing that any of this stuff about the new consoles really tells me is that PC gaming isn't going anywhere any time soon since there will always be people like those of us here that want what the PC offers over the consoles...a dynamic that doesn't sound like it's changing with the next generation.

theyarecomingforyou wrote on May 29, 2012, 18:47:It looks like the next gen of consoles are going to be behind PCs at launch.

And potentially badly. The rumor going around is that the next Xbox is likely to have a very similar CPU to the 360 (possibly increasing from three to four cores) and a Radeon HD 6xxx-class GPU, while the PS4/Orbis is rumored to use a quad-core x86 AMD CPU and a Radeon HD 7xxx-class GPU. Meanwhile, if these consoles are coming out in late 2013, it will be at a time when AMD will likely be about to unveil its Radeon HD 9xxx-class GPUs, and Intel's next major CPU microarchitecture will be out...

To say that the next generation of consoles look like they'll be almost immediately slaughtered by PCs is an understatement.

It's entirely unsurprising when Nintendo persists in underspeccing its consoles. And, as already mentioned, there is concern whether the new consoles from Microsoft and Sony will be able to run it properly either. Mark Rein has already stated he's unhappy with the current proposed specs.

It looks like the next gen of consoles are going to be behind PCs at launch. Probably most of the GPU power going into them will be required for the jump from 720p to 1080p, with the new architecture being more efficient and more versatile. Meanwhile PCs can easily handle 1080p and many - like myself - already game at 1600p or even 1080p*3. The only thing the new consoles will have going for them is multi-million dollar advertising budgets to snap up exclusive titles, influence reviewers and alter perceptions. The only plus is that next-gen ports will start off at an inherently higher standard.

One rumour has it they are using a modified R700 for the GPU. Superior to the current consoles, inferior to current PC GPU's. That fits in with Gearbox saying it'll have the nicest console version of AVP. At this point I'm not convinced Sony or Microsoft are going to go the brute force hardware route again either.

Wookiestick wrote on May 29, 2012, 11:47:I'd be curious to know if UE4 won't support Wii U because it isn't fast enough or because of it's vastly different CPU/GPU architecture isn't worth the effort.

At this point we aren't even sure if PS4/Nextbox will support it either with the specs Epic are asking for.

The main stumbling block for the Wii U is going to be the shader architecture it supports... I'm assuming that its GPU is likely DX10-class hardware. For the other next-generation consoles, Epic is going to complain up and down about not having enough RAM, but you can work around a lack of RAM a little more easily than not having certain hardware features available.

Wookiestick wrote on May 29, 2012, 11:47:I'd be curious to know if UE4 won't support Wii U because it isn't fast enough or because of it's vastly different CPU/GPU architecture isn't worth the effort.

At this point we aren't even sure if PS4/Nextbox will support it either with the specs Epic are asking for.

Having UE4 running on all platforms is beneficial enough to all parties, that Epic will probably either cut back on planned features if needed - or Sony/MS will wait until hardware costs are where they need to be. Or more likely a combination of the two.